At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to envision ourselves before and after sustainable change and design a portrait accordingly (it can be viewed here, along with an explanation). I feel like my portrait has been proven correct.

After our group project, which dealt largely with the truth, I have opened myself up to actively learning (more than I did before). Although I have always read the newspaper and read the news, I find myself paying more attention.

As for a sustainable change in terms of environmental change, I feel my portrait is correct there as well. The changes I have made to the way I live and work are simple and small, as depicted in the image.

Here is my sustainable change:

No staples unless it’s something that will be kept: I am a newfound paperclip devotee. I read somewhere (I can’t find it anymore) about how much waste steel is caused by staples.

Paper must be used back and front before being recycled: See below my reusable recycling pile (as opposed to the recycling that goes out for collection). I’ve decided I’m going to make some nice notebooks with recycled paper. I think this semester’s work could be some nice inspiration for next semester’s work.

So, most of the semester’s progressive printouts and readings are in that pile somewhere… destined to be something amazing soon…

That’s really all. Just tiny changes that might make a little difference. But at least I’m thinking about it. Completing the lecture visualisations has definitely made me think about sustainability differently. Previously, I thought the term really only referred to environmental sustainability, but I now fully realise that sustainability is about sustaining all aspects of society for the future.

This will be my final post for the semester, so before I head off, I just wanted to post a few images from my backlog, that I feel relate to this semester’s work.

This is one of my favourite photos that I have taken. I love it aesthetically, but also because I can think of so many things it could mean. The aphids look like a little sustainable community plugging away at a common goal, which I think is nice. This has almost been a visualisation for a few lectures, so I think it deserves an honourable mention.

I just thought this was the most curious thing. My dad showed me this clothing tag on a pair of pants he owns. It has about 4 pages, which you flick through for instructions on how to take care of the pants, they’re fairly detailed.

Speaking of multi-page documents, does anyone else own a Mighty Mouse? The Apple mouse with a scroll-wheel? The Mighty Mouse comes with a 60 page manual on how to use the mouse. Personally, I haven’t read a word of it, and I seriously doubt how many people out there have done so. But the thing that gets me about this manual is how much of a waste of paper it is. Out of the 60 pages, four are in English. It is a fairly similar circumstance for most of the languages. So each person who gets the booklet uses about 7% of it…

Okay, my final statement, I have always loved this piece of graffiti, and see the relevance in it more and more each time I see it. I’m sure any of you who catch the train will be familiar with it.

Although uni has been massively stressful this semester, I am really happy with the outcomes we have created and with the thought-provoking nature of the course. I have also really enjoyed keeping this blog. I never expected the crazy amount of hits I got, so thank you for that.